Friends Who Are Going

Friends Attending

Friends Attending

Friends Attending

Description

The seminar is being organised by the Tropical Agriculture Association (TAA) East Anglia Branch, NIAB International, CambPlants Hub and the University of Cambridge Strategic Research Initiative in Global Food Security (GFS). The seminar will learn from the experiences of two of East Anglia’s leading crop research centres on their successes in transferring research results to farmers in Kenya and Ethiopia. The speakers and their tentative topics, will be:

a)Tinashe Chiurugwi, of NIAB International, will present a paper entitled: “Supporting smallholders in improving wheat cultivation”. This will summarise issues and challenges constraining smallholder wheat cultivation and will discuss NIAB’s R&D support for smallholder wheat farmers in Kenya, through their Agri-Transfer project. NIAB hopes that a member of the Kenyan KALRO team from Nairobi will join the seminar.

b)Peter Emmrich of the John Innes Centre, Norwich will talk on “The potential of improved grass pea genotypes for food security in water-stressed regions”. This will be based on his current research on grass pea research in Ethiopia. Grass pea is a highly nutritious legume crop with outstanding tolerance to drought and flooding and can be grown with limited agricultural inputs but it contains a neurotoxin (beta-ODAP). Peter aims to remove the toxin to enable use of the crop to increase food security in low-income areas.

There will be a Panel Discussion, including the speakers and invited panellists for participants’ questions and discussion. Tea/coffee and biscuits will be available and there will be an opportunity to visit the research glasshouses on the adjacent NIAB Innovation Farm, especially to see wheat and ornamental plant breeding.

To reserve a place at the seminar, please go to the Eventbrite link. Click here for location details. Parking is plentiful; use Guided Bus service from railway station/city centre (car shuttle service will meet at ‘Histon & Impington’ stop).